AKT1 and ischemic stroke: Wu et al. (2020a) demonstrated that the neuroprotective property of PNS was mediated by the EGFR/PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, which was one of the most representative neuroprotective pathways. EGFR was transactivated after an ischemic stroke in an organism and then stimulated downstream signal cascades to protect and promote the growth of cells. An in vivo study by Yang et al. (2018) also confirmed that PNS promoted the growth of neurites and plays a neuroprotective role by activating the EGFR/PI3K/Akt pathway.